Overhead at my Favorite Clothing Store in the Mall

Salesclerk: “Would you like to open a credit card and save 40% on your purchase price?” (Aside - I’m pretty sure the clerk said 40% - I think it was some sort of promo deal since 40% is a lot!)

Customer buying one shirt: “No thanks. If you can’t pay cash, why buy it?”

I guess Americans really are changing and starting to think about what they are spending. I view this as a positive!

Managing Holiday Gift Expectations

Valentine’s Day may be a holiday promoted by the greeting card industry and their subsidiaries to get us to spend more money. There are numerous ideas out there on how to save money for this upcoming holiday. When you’re in a committed relationship, I think the holiday is all about expectations.

My husband and I are making an effort to spend less on stuff and to spend more on experiences. That doesn’t mean that a girl like me doesn’t appreciate the loving trinket here and there. One of my favorite presents my husband gave me was something that cost less than $10, but it was extremely thoughtful and completely unnecessary. It was a little trinket that he found with my nickname on it.

This year to manage expectations, C and I made a deal. We will be getting each other gifts, but the max price on them is $25. This way no feelings are hurt if one person spends a lot more or if one person decides to forgo the commercialism and get the other nothing.

Of course when you’re in a new relationship, it might not be so easy to be forthcoming and manage expectations. My friend and her boyfriend agreed not to buy presents for each other this past Christmas. However his friends were convinced that when they said no presents, she would still expect something (to a certain degree, I would agree that I would expect something small). He ended up getting her theater tickets, which she loved, but then she had to scramble to get him something. I think it’s much easier when you can honestly communicate with your significant other to ensure that expectations are met.

Wearing Out Clothes

It's unfortunate that I have worn out two of my favorite sweaters this summer. I know it's summer and I shouldn't need to wear sweaters, but I'm one of those people who always gets cold at work. The first time I wore out a sweater, I was lucky since my sister had the same exact sweater and she didn't wear it since it didn't fit her correctly.

This time I'm not so lucky. It so happens that I have three duplicates of the same sweater from Ann Taylor. I happened to purchase all of them on sale, in prices ranging from $75 - $40 for 2 ply cashmere sweaters. I would wear one of these sweaters at least once a week to work for 3 or 4 years. Now I only have one left!

Due to this recent turn of events, I feel the need to purchase some more sweaters. I really loved those sweaters. I didn't really like the styles available last winter at Ann Taylor so I didn't purchase any. I'm thinking about using eBay to fulfill my need. No one is selling sweaters (except the light weight ones) this time of the year yet. Even in a month or two when warmer sweaters are available, they'll be full price. Still thinking about how to replenish my work wardrobe.

Shopping Spree

Last week I went to the mall with my finance. Since moving back to California, I haven't been doing that much shopping for clothes. One great thing about living in NYC is if you really want something at a regular store such as Ann Taylor (my favorite) or Gap, you can get it on sale if you're willing to wait and travel a bit. So last Saturday was somewhat of an anomaly for me since I went on the largest clothing shopping spree of my life! I got one great suit from Ann Taylor (over 50% off and very classic). My next purchase,a pair of jeans from Lucky, was a major splurge costing about $100 including taxes. I justified this purchase by the fact that I have sort of been looking for a new pair of jeans for over 3 years and I bought my last new pair over 5 years ago. I do still have several perfectly good pairs of jeans, but my 3 favorite pairs all have rips in them. I will still continue to wear those jeans and only wear this new pair for special occasions. This should allow this new pair to last my at least 5 more years.

My last purchase came at Lady Foot Locker. This normally isn't a store I shop at, but when I walked by, it definitely looked like the store was closing. There were no shoes on display and the whole store was a mess. Unfortunately my finance and I had to get back to his house for dinner. On the way to my house, I was still thinking about the sale, so we decided to go back to the mall. We got there 15 minutes before the store closed. Luckily the stuff I had picked out earlier was still there. While we were waiting to check out, I decided to try on a black down jacket. Now being February in California, this isn't something I absolutely needed. I tried it out, and it fit perfectly. However checking the price, it was $119. With the 50% off, that was about $60. I couldn't justify spending $60 for a jacket that I probably wouldn't wear until next season. As I was putting it back on the rack, the saleswoman informed me that the jacket was only $27, including tax. I was shocked! Since this was a Nike jacket, I thought I could probably get more for the jacket on ebay, if sold in the right season. I decided to buy it. It was unusually cold this past weekend. I snuggled in my warm jacket. My mom asked me if I needed the heater (she usually turns it off when she goes to bed) and I was able to say "no" without fear of being chilled since I was wearing my new down jacket.